The numbers are in. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) booked US$9.32 a share in profits on US$35.02 billion in revenue. Analysts were expecting US$10.36 a share of profit on US$37.18 billion in revenue, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Seeing those numbers has to be disheartening for investors who've endured lousy reports from the likes of Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), which missed revenue estimates because of flagging PC market growth, and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), which fell after reporting its first quarterly loss as a public company.
Apple, for its part, is taking advantage of the post-PC world as Wintel works on bringing a Windows 8 tablet to market. But at least this quarter, investors were hoping for much more in the way of iPad, iPhone, and Mac sales during fiscal Q3:
|
Product |
Actual |
Median Projected |
Last Year |
Y-o-Y Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhones sold | 26.03 million | 32.75 million | 20.34 million | 27.9% |
| iPads sold | 17.04 million | 18.84 million | 9.25 million | 84.2% |
| Macs sold | 4.02 million | 4.45 million | 3.95 million | (1.7%) |
Sources: Fortune magazine, SEC filings, Apple press release.
Each figure is disappointing in its own way, though the "new" iPad appears to be the biggest cause for concern in my mind. Enthusiasm for Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) low-priced Kindle may have kept some buyers away from Apple's tab. Reports of strong demand for Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Nexus 7 may keep them away again in fiscal Q4.
Investors aren't taking the news well. As of this writing, shares of the Mac maker are down more than 4% after hours. The last time Apple disappointed investors like this, the stock fell more than 10%. Brace yourself if you own shares.
And don't sell. Now that Apple is sitting on more than US$100 billion in cash plus short- and long-term investments — US$117.2 billion, if you want to be precise — CEO Tim Cook and the Apple board figure there's no need to wait longer to pay shareholders a meaty dividend. Owners as of Aug. 13 can expect to receive US$2.65 for each share they own on Aug. 16.
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A version of this article, written by Tim Beyers, originally appeared on fool.com
